Don't Tell Tara - the inner workings of a chronic oversharer

We’re 8 months deep in 2018, and I am slowly (and reluctantly) coming round to the fact that, in 32 days, I will be 30 years old. I have nearly been alive for 3 decades. Halfway to 60. Let’s just chew on that for a second.   No, I’m not okay with it yet – I wish I had the cushion of a couple more years in my twenties, because everything sounds so much more grown up when you’re 30. You’re a real, fully fledged adult. That’s what they tell you anyway. My friend said something to me when we were discussing the impending birthday, that was both obvious yet surprising.   The period between 20 and 30 is probably the most dramatic, life changing decade of your life. You literally grow up. You go from being a teenager with minimum responsibility and the world at your feet, to paying bills, worrying about your metabolism, going to 15 weddings a year and organising baby showers. Yep, that escalated quickly. So, if I could do it all again, would I do anything different? ...

As I was sitting with my friends tonight discussing our plans for Friday, it dawned on me: we were arranging to meet OUT- not at my house for pre drinks and outfit trying on, at the actual place we were going to at an actually civilised time. Your 18 year old self is freaking out right now... Actually walking into a bar on your own? Not having your friends vet your outfit beforehand? WTF?  Now I don't know about you but because I work nights I have adopted the attitude of "Will this bother me after 2 glasses of wine?" and we all know the answer to this one.  So it got me thinking back to the good old days when I had at least 7 hours from finishing school to leaving the house to go out- ample prep time yet still always rushing about in the last 10 minutes before the taxi came!  The routine was very important and usually began with prep the night before, followed by the hangover day after in which we tried to fill in the blanks and find out who's idea it was ...

They say that in the midst of darkness, we look for light . When things begin to fall apart around us, we can't help but focus on the fact that everything seems to be going hunky bloody dory for everyone else. Now I'm the sort of girl whose misery loves company- if I have shit going on, I want to talk about it. It makes me feel human, it's my therapy. I don't, by any stretch, believe that any of my friends can solve my problems for me, but I do believe that a problem shared is a problem halved, and I would also want them to feel like they can always come to me if they need help.  We all like to have a whinge and a moan when our boyfriends/husbands are annoying us, but there came a point in my relationship when I started to sound like a broken record… the arguments were more frequent, and we couldn't seem to get past this 'rocky patch'. Worst of all, we were only 6 months in. Now as one friend so brutally, yet honestly told me- "life isn't lik...